Where the Heart Is

Bendigo Woollen mills have some lovely children's patterns. This beautiful rib design knit jumper, PT 8486 is a pleasure to knit. It uses a 4 ply yarn and a pair of 2.75mm and 3.25 mm needles. It is worked on a tension of 42 stitches and and 38 rows to 10cm over the rib pattern.

The rib pattern is a K2 P2 rib worked over 8 rows and incorporating a left leading twist on one row and a right leaning twist on another row to create the interesting effect.

The pattern works up into a snug stretchy knit with a nice round neck with buttons on one shoulder seam making it easy to pull on over a child's head. the colour I used was Luxury Koala. for a visual break I incorporated 3 cream stripes on the lower back and front.

When I have a few spare minutes I really enjoy picking up some needles and an odd bit of yarn from the stash and experimenting with different kinds of stitches. One afternoon I got thoroughly hooked on playing with some simple patterns using twisted stitches. I have 3 different patterns in the photo below, all based on using a cast on of an even number of stitches and a pattern of 4 rows.

The bottom stitch I will call the Knit Twist. It is worked as follows:

Row 1: *K2tog, leave stitches on LH needle, twist to right and reknit first stitch slipping both stitches off needle*Row 2: KnitRow 3: K1, *K2tog as before, twisting to right to reknit first stitch to last stitch* K1Row 4: Knit

The second stitch I will call the Purl Twist. Work as follows:

Row 1: *P2tog, leave stitches on LH needle, twist to right and purl first stitch again, slip stitches off needle*Row 2: KnitRow 3: P1, *P2tog as before, twisting to right to purl first stitch again as before, to last stitch* K1Row 4: Knit

The third stitch I will call the Bias Knit Twist. Work as follows:

Row 1: *K2tog, leave stitches on LH needle, twist to right and reknit first stitch slipping both stitches off needle*Row 2: PurlRow 3: K1, *K2tog as before, twisting to right to reknit first stitch to last stitch* K1Row 4: PurlThe effect of purling every alternate row is to give the pattern a lovely bias slant to the right.

Note that the knitting or purling 2 together and then twisting to reknit (or purl) the first stitch gives a highly dense, textured effect which would be ideal for a wintry scarf, afghan, blanket or cushion cover. It is a workout for the fingers. The reverse side has a garter stitch look: